The combination of the pandemic and rising inflation has exposed some of the glaring inequalities and inefficiencies in our economy, from how poorly “essential workers” are compensated to a supply chain that has multiple weak links that break under supply or demand shocks. It has also exposed theft as a significant part of the business model of modern corporations. Wage and time theft; fraudulent fees; price-fixing; wage-fixing; and price gouging – all of these are common corporate tactics that are apparently widely used across multiple sectors of our economy and even by Fortune 500 companies.
The simplest form of wage theft is to avoid paying workers the minimum wage or less than the wage agreed upon on employment. Around 17% of the low-wage work force in the ten most populous states are paid less than the legal minimum wage. A 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute estimated that workers were cheated out of $8 billion annually due to just minimum wage violations. An associated tactic is time theft, either by refusing to pay overtime or by requiring employees work before or after they clock in or out. When time theft is included with minimum wage theft, it is estimated that as much as $15 billion per year is stolen from workers. (As a comparison, $15 billion is twice as much as the US Government spends on energy annually.) To show how widespread these tactics are, especially for lower wage workers, another recent report showed that 85% of fast-food workers in...
A California lawmaker is suing Sacramento police for falsely accusing her of driving under the influence, saying the case may have been motivated by her tough-on-cops legislation or possibly becaus...